I want to talk about dog poop – well, not about the poop itself, but about the business of dog poop. Yes…there is huge business in dog poop in Canada, trust me.

I remember reading online a few years ago about this company that launched a pooper-scooper service for dog owners who didn’t want to clean their backyards after a long winter and yucky melted snow. If you have experienced this scenario, you will know it’s not a very pleasant experience. Well guess what? Many people are willing to pay BIG bucks (🙋🏽‍♀️) to get that unpleasant activity off their to-do list.

This particular business found a problem that many face (statistics say that about 35% of Canadian households have a dog) and they saw the opportunity to fix it and charge a premium for it. As a newcomer to Canada, I was flabbergasted that this was even a THING…until I picked up the phone and scheduled my cleanup appointment and fistpumped that first time when I actually didn’t have to do that task myself..

Then came the doggy daycare business. Again, as a newcomer, this was almost laughable, until I had my own dog as an adult and realized that Mr. Pepe needed socialization and doggy friends while I was away for 8-10 hours per day. I mean, he was my practice child after all and on a snow storm day, the last thing you want is to come home to a chewed up couch thanks to a bored dog.

Again, this business saw a problem, realized the market is big enough (remember that 35% statistic?) and found a solution that is enticing to a segment of their potential market.

And like these two businesses, there are many! (not all related to dogs, I promise) Take for example home organization, home cleaning, pre-prepared meals and anything that fixes one of the main problems and one of the most scarce resources we all struggle with: TIME.

I believe that a business that gives the gift of time to your potential customer is a winner in my eyes. Where do you struggle with everyday? What would you outsource in a heartbeat if someone was willing to do it for you? What are those tasks that you partner, your friend, your parents, your kids always give you a hard time with? Chances are, you are not alone – and chances are that if you’re able to find a solution to that problem and the potential target audience is large enough, you got yourself a winning business idea.

The more I look into different business ideas and the way they fix everyday problems, the more fascinated I get about digging into the whole business ideation process.

That’s why I decided to create the Business IDEA Lab – an online course to walk students through the ideation and validation process of coming up with a business. It is self-paced, supported with video training, exercise sheets and a private community of fellow Business IDEA Lab’ers to help you stay connected, motivated and enroute to building your next problem-solving business.

The program goes live onSep 27, 2021and early bird pricing is on until August 1!  Sign up below.